Thesis (MPA.) -- University of the North, 2001 / Refer to document

The continued rise of socio-economic inequality over the past decades with its connected political outcomes such as the Brexit vote in the UK, and the election of Donald Trump are currently a matter of intense debate both in academia and in journalism. One significant sign of the heightened interest was the surprise popularity of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the twenty-first Century. The book reached the top of the bestseller lists and was described as a "media Sensation", with Piketty himself as a "rock star Economist". This paper, drawing from a major international and cross-disciplinary study, investigates the print media treatment in four European countries of economic policy proposals presented in Capital. Applying social semiotic and critical discourse analysis, we specifically focus on articles which are in disagreement with these proposals and identify five categories of counterarguments used against Piketty: authorisation, moralisation, rationalisation, portrayal of victimhood and inevitability. Providing textual and linguistic examples we demonstrate how the use of linguistic resources normalises and conventionalises ideology-laden discourses of economic means (taxation) and effects, reinforcing particular views of social relations and class as common sense and therewith upholding and perpetuating power relations and inequalities.

Thesis (M.A. (Sociology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2014 / The problem investigated in this study relates to the socio-economic outcomes that the Fast-Track Land Redistribution Programme (FTLRP) produced. The study focused on the voices of the newly resettled farmers because the socio-economic outcomes of the FTLRP have been analyzed at a high level (government, NGOs and international organisations), thus ignoring the voice of the people at the grassroots. For example, scholars like Moyo (2004) asserted that the land question has generated a lot of emotional debate and there is a general consensus that it represents the dimension to the crisis the country is going through. On the other hand according to Mukamuri (2000) land is a very crucial factor in the eradication of insecurity and rural poverty. The study focused on the socio-economic outcomes of the Fast-Track Land Redistribution Programme (FTLRP) in Kippure-lram Resettlement Scheme, Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. The research employed qualitative research methods which were descriptive. The population of the study was constituted by the beneficiaries of the Kippure-lram Resettlement Scheme. Data collection in this study was done through the use of focus group discussions and secondary data was collected from government (Zimbabwean Government, 2003 and 2005), NGOs (FAO, 2003), international organisations (Oxfam International, 2002 and 2003) and literature from various scholars. The population comprised of all the newly resettled farmers of the Kippure-lram Resettlement scheme. Thirty (30) out of forty (40) respondents were interviewed and the researcher made use of non-probability sampling, which was purposive. Ten (10) of the farmers were not interviewed because they were not true representation of the beneficiaries of the FTLRP because they were not active in the programme. iii The researcher divided the participants into five groups. Each group had six participants. Each group of participants was interviewed on three different sessions; each session had its own thematic question. Totally, fifteen sessions were conducted during the focus group discussions. The discussions were carried out at Kippure-Iram Resettlement Scheme from the 10th to 15th of December 2010. Each session of the interviews lasted for two hours. The researcher made use of pseudo names during the interviews, a way of protecting the identity of the participants. Analysis of data in this study was carried out through the use of content analysis. Seventy-six percent (76%) of the participants observed that the FTLRP’s outcomes in Kippure-Iram Resettlement Scheme were positive to a larger extent, mainly because they can now practise various farming projects to earn a living on their new land and the programme has managed to distribute land to its rightful owners. On the other hand, twenty-four per-cent (24%)) of the participants indicated that the results of the FTLRP were negative because after the FTLRP they were left unemployed.

Thesis (MBA) -- University of Limpopo, 2008 / Land reform is divided into three sub-programmes, which are redistribution programmes, restitution and tenure reform. The redistribution programme consists of Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development settlement and non-agricultural enterprises. Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development programme was established to redress the imbalances of land owners aroused from the previous government and its policies. A person who qualifies to purchase farms through the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development programme is a previously disadvantaged person, that is, an African, Coloured and Indian. If a person belongs to a previously disadvantaged group and that particular person works for the government he/she does not qualify to be funded by the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development programme. The National Department of Agriculture introduced a new programme called the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme. The primary aim of the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme is to make provision for agricultural support to targeted beneficiaries of the land reform and agrarian reform programme. This dissertation proposed an investigation of the success factors of Comprehensive agricultural Support programme on the farms allocated under the Land redistribution for Agricultural Development in the Waterberg District of the Limpopo Province. The objectives of study were: i. To determine factors influencing the success of the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme projects on farms allocated under the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development farms ii. To suggest recommendations for the improvement of the implementation of the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme. iv A case study approach was used to investigate the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme funded projects. Personal interview questions were posed to participants who were the farmers who receiving the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme grant and managers who were managing the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development farms. Open-ended questionnaires were used to collect data and four farms allocated under Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development funded by the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme and four municipal managers in the Waterberg District of the Limpopo Province were interviewed. The qualitative approach was used to process the data The chapter layouts of this research are as follows: Chapter 1: Problem Statement, Aims and Objectives of the Study, Chapter 2: Literature Survey, Chapter 3: Research Design, Chapter 4: Analysis of Data and Interpretation, and Chapter 5: Recommendations and Conclusion. The analysis of the data revealed that Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme is a success on the farms allocated under the Land redistribution for Agricultural Development in the Waterberg District of the Limpopo Province.

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier les propriétés redistributives des systèmes de retraite par répartition. Nous montrons tout d'abord que la redistribution intergénérationnelle et la redistribution verticale jouent un rôle important pour la détermination de la taille des systèmes de transferts organisés par l'Etat. Puis, nous étudions l'impact sur l'accumulation du capital et le bien-être de la redistributivité instantanée des systèmes de retraite. Enn, nous montrons qu'un système de retraite par répartition peut être régressif si les inégalités face à la mort sont signicatives.

Dans cette thèse, nous nous sommes intéressée à la mise en oeuvre d'algorithmes itératifs sur des grappes hétérogènes. Ces algorithmes fonctionnent avec un volume important de données (calcul de matrices, traitement d'images, etc.), qui sera réparti sur l'ensemble des processeurs. À chaque itération, des calculs indépendants sont effectués en parallèle et certaines communications ont lieu. Il n'existe pas de raison a priori de réduire le partitionnement des données à une unique dimension et de ne l'appliquer que sur un anneau de processeurs unidimensionnel. Cependant, un tel partitionnement est très naturel et nous montrerons que trouver l'optimal est déjà très difficile. Après cette étude sur le placement et l'équilibrage de charge pour plates-formes hétérogènes, nous nous sommes intéressée à la redistribution de données sur ces mêmes plates-formes, lorsque que les caractéristiques de ces dernières changent. En ce qui concerne les anneaux de processeurs homogènes, nous avons totalement résolu le problème : nous avons obtenu des algorithmes optimaux et prouvé leur exactitude dans le cas homogène et dans le cas hétérogène. En ce qui concerne les anneaux hétérogènes, le cas unidirectionnel a été totalement résolu, alors que le cas bidirectionnel reste ouvert. Cependant, sous l'hypothèse de redistribution légère, nous sommes capable de résoudre le problème de manière optimale.

Afin d'identifier les principaux facteurs contrôlant la redistribution des éléments traces métalliques (ETM) exogènes dans le sol, nous avons utilisé une démarche intégrative à différentes échelles : constituants, solum et transect parcellaire. Cette démarche a été appliquée sur des Luvisols sableux de la région parisienne, fortement pollués par cent ans d'épandages massifs d'eaux usées brutes. Les ETM endogènes et les ETM exogènes ont été discriminés de manière à étudier spécifiquement le devenir des ETM amenés par les eaux usées brutes.<br />Dans l'horizon de labour, la distribution spatiale des ETM est fonction de la géométrie du système d'irrigation et de la topographie du terrain.<br />Dans le cas de Pb et de Cr, il n'y a pas d'exogène dans les horizons inférieurs (0.4-1m), constatation corroborée par leur spéciation, identique dans le sol contaminé et dans le sol témoin. Une estimation des flux d'ETM basée sur l'immobilité du chrome dans les sols, et sur la constance des rapports ETM/Cr dans les eaux d'épandage, indique que le plomb amené par les eaux usées brutes n'a pas migré. Les stocks d'exogène dans les horizons inférieurs montrent que par contre, Cu et Zn ont migré. Cu aurait été plus massivement mobilisé et exporté que Zn, ce dernier étant plus repiégé que Cu le long du profil. Les constituants et les mécanismes responsables du piégeage de Cu le long du solum n'ont pas été identifiés. Pour Zn, la recapture s'est faite principalement sur les oxyhydroxydes de fer et de manganèse. Les quantités de Zn fixées sont fonction du nombre de sites et de leur accessibilité, conditionnée par l'organisation des flux d'eau dans la parcelle.

<p>Analog-to-digital converters (ADC) targeted for use in medical implant devices serve an important role as the interface between analog signal and digital processing system. Usually, low power consumption is required for a long battery lifetime. In such application which requires low power consumption and moderate speed and resolution, one of the most prevalently used ADC architectures is the successive approximation register (SAR) ADC.This thesis presents a design of an ultra-low power 9-bit SAR ADC in 0.13μm CMOS technology. Based on a literature review of SAR ADC design, the proposed SAR ADC combines a capacitive DAC with S/H circuit, uses a binary-weighted capacitor array for the DAC and utilizes a dynamic latch comparator. Evaluation results show that at a supply voltage of 1.2V and an output rate of 1kS/s, the SAR ADC performs a total power consumption of 103nW and a signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio of 54.4dB. Proper performance is achieved down to a supply voltage of 0.45V, with a power consumption of 16nW.</p>

The aim of this thesis was to examine the cost-effectiveness of specific advanced home care and home rehabilitation interventions and to improve economic evaluation methods when applied to advanced home care. This included a comparison of two alternative ways of administering oxygen at home to patients with chronic hypoxaemia, as well as a review of scientific evidence on costs and effects of home rehabilitation after stroke. Also included were studies on prominent methodological issues in advanced home care - the redistribution of care efforts among caregivers and costing of informal care efforts. For patients with chronic hypoxaemia, a randomised, controlled trial showed that mobile liquid oxygen was considerably more costly compared to concentrator treatment. However, the treatment effects showed that liquid oxygen had a better impact on patient quality of life. The literature review revealed that the outcomes and costs of home rehabilitation after stroke are equal to those of alternative treatment strategies. Similar results were obtained in a study comparing hospital-based and home-based stroke rehabilitation, which also showed that there is a considerable redistribution of costs between health care providers and social welfare providers. Studies of patients in advanced home care in the county of Östergötland, Sweden, showed that the cost of informal care constitutes a considerable part of the care effort in all costing approaches used. Also, informal care costs were higher among patients who were men, who were younger, who had their own housing and had a cancer diagnosis. This thesis reveals that advanced home care interventions can differ regarding costs as well as effects, and thus comparisons between alternative home care interventions must also be performed. Further, redistribution effects are important to consider in evaluations. The cost of informal care is substantial in advanced home care. These costs must be included in evaluations with a societal perspective or else the comparisons will be biased.

<p>This thesis interrogates the claim that resource-poor, rural land seekers can acquire land through the land market which constitutes the central mechanism of land redistribution in South Africa&rsquo / s market-based land reform programme. The study explores two key aspects in relation to this claim. Firstly, it provides a critique of the underlying assumptions prevalent in much of the current market-based land reform policy, as advocated by its national and international proponents, and the manner in which the market as a mechanism for land redistribution has been conceptualized and its outcomes envisaged. Secondly, it considers the extent to which this conceptualization - which it is argued, draws on idealized and abstracted notions of land market functioning - is realized and examines the extent to which the espoused outcomes of market-based land reform policy are aligned with or contradicted by the functioning of real markets and the experiences of resource-poor land seeking people in their attempts to engage in the land market with limited state support. The details of the market&rsquo / s operation are analysed, with a distinction made between the operational practice of real markets &ndash / based on direct evidence-based observation <br /> and degrees of policy abstraction and theoretical assumptions regarding how markets should or might operate. The study&rsquo / s methodological framework draws on an agrarian political economy perspective, as used by theorists such as Akram-Lodhi (2007) and Courville (2005), amongst others. This perspective enables a consideration of the various contexts and socially embedded processes involved in land transactions and the extent to which these are shaped and framed by the politics of policy-making. In line with this perspective, the study focuses on the social relations brought to bear on the acquisition of land and the way in which land markets operate. It is suggested that land is not solely viewed as an economic commodity by land-seekers. Furthermore, it was found that markets cannot be understood as neutral institutions in which participants are equal players.</p>